GAME REPORT

EWE Baskets Draw First Blood

EWE Baskets Oldenburg have avoided paying the price for some late complacency, sneaking home over guests Khimik, 82-74, in game of their EuroChallenge quarter-final play-off series.

A tensely fought duel unravelled over the first 20 minutes in Oldenburg with EWE Baskets and Khimik trading the lead on nine occasions and tying it on a further six occasions.

The first real break of the game went in the favour of the hosts in the run up to half-time with EWE Baskets allowed to score the last five points of the frame to hold a six-point lead at the buzzer.

The break failed to help Khimik regain their composure, and incidentally, failed to stop the hot hands of the hosts with a Julius Jenkins' three putting the Germans up by nine, 47-36, early in the third quarter.

Despite a time-out in response to the three, Khimik failed to regroup as EWE Baskets continued to race ahead on some inspired shooting from Chris Kramer who had the home-side up 63-49 with his 11th point of the night late in the third quarter.

Leading by 13 with a frame to play, it appeared the minds of the Oldenburg players were already concerning themselves with other affairs as Khimik snuck back up to be within four points on a Willie Deane jump shot with just over a minute to play.

However, cool heads prevailed for the Germans as Kramer and Jenkins confirmed the win by both making a late pair from the charity stripe.

Jenkins ended with a game-high 23 points on perfect three-for-three downtown shooting whilst Kramer made five assists to go with 15 points.

Deane was the best of the guests with 19 points.

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COACH QUOTES

Quotes EWE Baskets vs. Khimik Yuzhne

Khimik assistant coach Vitaly Stepanovski"It was a very tough game for us. Oldenburg had a lot of time to prepare for us and it showed. We tried a lot of different defensive setups and have learned what works against them and what doesn't. We weren't surprised by their quality of play and are encouraged that we stayed in the game until the end. We are looking forward to playing them again in two days."

Khimik player Artem Pustovyi"We had a chance to win it with our comeback in the last quarter, but we ran out of luck in the last minutes. We fought hard for 40 minutes but today that was not enough. Still it was plain to see, that both teams are equally matched and that the series will probably be decided in three games."

Oldenburg head coach Sebastian Machowski"It was important to win game one. The end result is not that important, but the game never needed to be this close. We were careless with our chances and wasted a lot of easy opportunities. Still we controlled the game for the whole time and got our stops when needed. What we need to improve between now and Thursday is the defense against their strong inside-outside combinations and we need to keep them away from the offensive boards."

Oldenburg guard Julius Jenkins"I tried to be aggressive today and my teammates got me very good looks and worked really hard. The first half was a bit frustrating because so many layups went in and out and we left a lot of points on the table. We look forward to play again in two days, despite the long travel. It is a good rhythm to have games this frequently and we players really enjoy our game right now."

COACH QUOTES

Quotes EWE Baskets vs. Khimik Yuzhne

Khimik assistant coach Vitaly Stepanovski"It was a very tough game for us. Oldenburg had a lot of time to prepare for us and it showed. We tried a lot of different defensive setups and have learned what works against them and what doesn't. We weren't surprised by their quality of play and are encouraged that we stayed in the game until the end. We are looking forward to playing them again in two days."

Khimik player Artem Pustovyi"We had a chance to win it with our comeback in the last quarter, but we ran out of luck in the last minutes. We fought hard for 40 minutes but today that was not enough. Still it was plain to see, that both teams are equally matched and that the series will probably be decided in three games."

Oldenburg head coach Sebastian Machowski"It was important to win game one. The end result is not that important, but the game never needed to be this close. We were careless with our chances and wasted a lot of easy opportunities. Still we controlled the game for the whole time and got our stops when needed. What we need to improve between now and Thursday is the defense against their strong inside-outside combinations and we need to keep them away from the offensive boards."

Oldenburg guard Julius Jenkins"I tried to be aggressive today and my teammates got me very good looks and worked really hard. The first half was a bit frustrating because so many layups went in and out and we left a lot of points on the table. We look forward to play again in two days, despite the long travel. It is a good rhythm to have games this frequently and we players really enjoy our game right now."